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Transposition
Transposons, also called
transposable elements, are mobile genetic
elements that generally have only modest target
site selectively and can thus insert themselves
into many different DNA sites. In transposition,
a specific enzyme, usually encoded by the
transposon and called a transpose, acts on a
specific DNA sequence at each end of the
transposon (first disconnecting it from the
flanking DNA) and the inserting it into a new
target DNA site. There is no requirement for
homology between the ends of the element and the
insertion site.
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